


The Old Dæmons

by halelikehell (Asko)



Series: Dæmon AUs [15]
Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Gen, M/M, Photomanip, and fanfiction, introduction of everyone's daemons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 10:22:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25848013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asko/pseuds/halelikehell
Summary: There weren't just the Old Guard.There were their dæmons too.They were there too, and they lived and died too.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Dæmon AUs [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1110972
Comments: 23
Kudos: 215





	1. The Intro

**Author's Note:**

> A new fandom need new daemons obviously! 
> 
> This one rather told it's own story without me able to stop them. More chapters to come. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new fandom need new daemons obviously!
> 
> This one rather told its own story without me able to stop them. More chapters to come.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

The golden jackal daemon went down the stairs first.

"Clear", a surprisingly dark voice came from him. After him the others followed.

"Something's wrong", the jackal daemon growled.

"It's empty", a golden eagle daemon pointed out as she landed on a shoulder.

"Where are the girls?" The peregrine falcon daemon wondered as she landed on another shoulder and they looked around. The fox daemon didn't say anything.

"What the fuck..." Andy barely had the time to say before strangers ran forward from the corners of the room with heavy weapons in their arms.

"Shit..-!"

A storm of bullets flew, it was like having a truck crash into them. The daemons disappeared almost immediately in a dust of gold leaving only abrupt shrieks behind.

When the last body fell there were no gold dust left. Silence lowered in the basement. The strangers stared down at the bodies for a moment before they relaxed and turned to look at each other in triumph.

Suddenly a little twitch. A little gold dust appeared in the air. Another twitch and more dust were slowly being collected into shapes next to the bodies.

When the unseeing eyes suddenly contracted and begun to see again the golden dust was shimmering into shapes of daemons.

Yusuf lifted himself up on his hands looking around. He saw his daemon next to him, just changing from gold dust into the familiar checkered feathers and just drawing her first new deep breath of air. He looked to his other side and to his relief he saw the hawk also flaxing her new brown feathers and the familiar blue eyes that were looking for him too.

Yusuf and Nicolò nodded at each other.


	2. Andy, Booker and Nile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now it's time for introductions;
> 
> Ax, Jean and Kemp.

_Andromache “ **Andy** ” of Scythia - _ _Astyanax “ **Ax** ” (Golden Jackal)_

“Why now?”

Andy looked down to Ax who was sitting in front of her. She stared into his yellow golden eyes which she had known for centuries, ever since the moment they were born, as he stared back calmly without saying anything more. She poked a little at the wound under her jacket, it hurt. It was strange to feel the pulsing pain that didn’t disappear immediately.

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think it’s because of Nile?” Ax tilted his head curiously.

“Maybe a coincidence”, Andy answered as she looked up into the darkened sky again.

“Do you believe in coincidences now?” Ax wondered with humored sceptism in his voice. Andy cracked a little smile.

“... We’re going to die”, Ax said after a moment of silence.

“We were always going to die”, Andy pointed out.

“You know what I mean”, Ax pointed out in turn.

She looked down at her familiar, her daemon, her friend, her family, her brother, who had always been at her side through the centuries and everything. Always together, always alone. They were tired, tired of fighting, killing, living, dying. But they had always been together,

... except for those very seconds in death. Darkness, silence, nothingness, not even Ax.

Andy had never felt more alone than in those seconds.

She carefully looked over Ax’s familiar golden-brown fur with those large slightly crooked ears. Those golden eyes who calmly looked into hers like it was her soul staring back at her. Were they going to never see each other again?

“I’m tired Ax”, she croaked with a slight stinging in her eyes.

“I know”, Ax soothed with his familiar calming dark humming voice. She didn’t even have to say anything, he already understood.

Slowly she lowered herself onto her knees with Ax looking calmly at her. It almost looked like a crooked smile on Ax’s jackal face when he stood up shaking his head and walked up to her with a slightly waving tail. Andy folded him into her arms and Ax burrowed his head into her neck.

“It’ll be alright Andy”, Ax hummed and Andy squeezed the warm coarse fur in her hands. “We’ll be alright.”

He didn’t say anything about the salty water that dripped from her cheeks onto his fur. He never did.

_Sebastien “ **Booker** ” le Livre - Jeanne “ **Jean** ” le Livre (Red Fox)_

Jean’s red fur had almost exposed them both in Russia’s white snow. Every time Booker had awoken again, he had stared down at her in fear as the gold dust shimmered in the snow until she was able to carefully hide among the blood-stained snow again. Scared that she would expose them, but even more scared that next time he opened his eyes she wouldn’t be there anymore.

When he was finally able to get down from the hanging rope coughing and collapsing onto the snow his beautiful Jean’s fur was full of clustered snow and ice stained by blood and dirt. But she had never been a more comforting sight than in that moment standing in front of him with a dead crow in her mouth and a victorious but tired look in her eyes.

They had died six more times on the way back home. Jean always curling up around him trying to give him some more warmth despite shaking of cold herself.

They never liked the cold after that.

“Sebastien...” Jean whispered and Booker could feel that familiar cold creep into his bones. She was suddenly still with her nose close to Andy’s wound, but surely it was healed by now. It was too long for it not to be healed, ... right?

“She’s not healing”, Jean looked up to him with fear in her eyes.

“What? No, no, you’re wrong”, Booker immediately reached forward to feel for himself. “It’s not possible.”

The cold was creeping closer and closer to his heart. When he exposed the wound still freshly bleeding, he could feel the disgusting familiar cold grasp his heart, like he was going to choke.

“Oh god”, he muttered staring in horror.

“Andy, Ax”, Jean wailed when the hired soldiers took them away. “We didn’t mean it; we didn’t mean this to happen! We wanted us to die! Just us!”

They were shaking again, like the time in the Russia’s winter cold, shivering without being able to stop. But it wasn’t cold.

_**Nile** Freeman - **Kemp** Freeman (African Wild Dog)_

Nile remembered looking down at Kemp as the world suddenly slowed down as she fell backward. He was turning around with his mouth opening like he was going to shout. She remembered seeing the gold dust suddenly burst from him, looking into his brown eyes widening in fear. In that moment they both knew what was happening. They were dying.

Booker had told her that you didn’t forget your first death, and she didn’t think so either. That look in Kemp’s eyes were burned into her memory.

But when she looked at him now, he looked back with a startling glint in his eyes like he had never disappeared from her. When she backed Kemp was always there behind her legs pushing her forward. Never stopping.

Nile had always been the one to hesitate while Kemp pushed her. They were a team like that. But the moment they had been approached by a recruiter from the marine corps she had looked at him and when the glint showed in his eyes, she felt the same spark inside her chest. Kemp’s grin widened. Finally, they were at the same level. Maybe this was where they were supposed to be?

When Nile discovered that the gun was empty and understood what had happened, she had immediately looked to Kemp who understood what it meant in the same second as she did. In the moment she saw the spark in his eyes she was feeling the same spark for the second time. It was no time to think carefully, it was time for action.

“Nile!” Kemp shouted jumping around her in impatience. “We have to go!”

“Yes, I know”, she shouted back at him scared of what it meant but he still just grinned at her with his tail waving eagerly.

“You always wanted to stay with them, right?” Nile asked him later on.

“Yeah sure”, Kemp grinned. “They’re fun!”

“Why didn’t you say anything when we left?” She remembered that Kemp had been quiet the whole time she had spoken to Andy about backing out and when they left, he had followed without a word.

“I know you”, Kemp gave her a look like it was a stupid question.

Maybe it was something in that Nicky said ... that it was like destiny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun facts:  
> Astyanax's name is from the greek mythology where he was son to Andromache. Obviously they made a mistake in history somewhere there, it was her daemon, not son. 
> 
> Jeanne is a French name, famous people include Jeanne d'Arc (Joan d'Arc's name in France). 
> 
> Kemp; the name Nile comes from Niall possibly meaning champion or cloud, and Kemp is coming from the Middle English word kempe meaning champion, athlete, warrior. They're both champions.


	3. Nicky and Joe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introduction of the ones you've probably been waiting for;
> 
> Beren and Noor.

_Nicolò “ **Nicky** ” di Genova - Berenice “ **Beren** ” di Nicolò (Golden Eagle)_

Nicky still remembered the sight of seeing two fierce birds of prey fighting in the hot desert air. It was a horrifying but remarkable sight. Talons pulling out feathers and beaks tearing into flesh. His Berenice was twice the size of the enemy’s falcon but the falcon was twice as fast as Berenice. Every time his daemon shrieked of pain, he felt his heart contract in pain and saw the gleam of victory in the other’s eyes. But every time Berenice shrieked in victory, he felt a surge of hope and viciousness overwhelm his heart and his next blow felt heavier and stronger.

While he and the enemy were fighting each other sometimes they died by the other’s sword but sometimes they also collapsed because one of their daemons fell down from the sky in the other daemon’s grasp.

Only to wake up and see their daemon wake up to life next to them again. It seemed never-ending.

Until Nicolò woke up and saw the enemy stand next to him. He tensed up until he saw Berenice stand next to him calmly looking down at him. The look in her eyes was the one thing that stopped him from grasping his sword again and cautiously he looked up to the ... enemy.

He was standing tall above him staring down at him with his falcon standing by his feet. At first Nicolò remembered the tales he had been told of hell and emptiness in the enemy’s eyes but he was startled to see a couple of normal dark eyes looking down at him with exhaustion in them. Had he never looked into them while fighting all this time?

The ene-.. man suddenly spoke in that strange language and Nicolò tensed up when he moved but there was no mistaken in what the extended open hand meant.

Nicolò glanced to Berenice who calmly blinked back at him.

“I’m tired Nicolò”, Berenice spoke softly. “We aren’t getting anywhere like this. We can’t kill each other.”

“But what does it mean?” Nicolò frowned at her frustrated. How was it possible?

“I don’t know”, she answered honestly. “But I think we’re supposed to be together.”

Nicolò looked up at the stranger in suspicion. Except that he wasn’t really a stranger anymore. Nicolò knew that his left side was weaker and where his protection exposed a weak spot. He knew what he looked like when he was winning and when he was dying.

He started to look a bit impatient with his hand still extended so Nicolò took it to the stranger’s surprise. His hand was warm but not sweaty. Pulling him up the stranger suddenly smiled a little. It was strange to see him smile after seeing him shout and grit his teeth in pain or anger.

The man spoke in the strange language again until he said something that sounded like a name - “... Yusuf Al-Kaysani.”

“Nicolò di Genova.”

“Nicky? Nicolò?” a familiar voice suddenly spoke up. Nicky smiled and slowly opened his eyes to not expose them too fast to the light that was shining into the bedroom from the window. Soon a shadow moved into the light so he could open his eyes wholly without blinding himself. Nicky’s smile widened.

“You were smiling”, Joe said with his blinding smile on his lips leaning above Nicky. “Having a nice dream?”

Nicky glanced over to the bed end where he saw their daemons. Noor was trimming the feathers on Beren’s head, the larger eagle had to lean down quite a bit for Noor to reach but had her eyes closed looking like she was enjoying it. Nicky hummed as he looked back to Joe who was looking curiously down at him.

“Just remembering something.”

_Yusuf “ **Joe** ” Al-Kaysani - **Noor** Al-Kaysani (Peregrine Falcon)_

“Nicky and I met in the crusades”, Joe smiled looking over to Nicky who smiled back. Noor was sitting on his chair’s back and trying to fondly trim Nicky’s hair. Joe’s grin widened.

“The crusades?” the new immortal member in their little group asked with shock in her voice.

“The first one mind you”, Beren pointed out from Joe’s shoulder, she was a bit prickly about that part.

“The love of my life is of the people I’ve been told to hate”, Nicky said next and Joe felt a surge of warmth overwhelm his heart. He could also feel Beren take a couple of steps on his shoulder closer to his head so she would be able to lean on his head a little bit. It was a bit heavy but it felt so warm and soft that he never minded it.

“We-”, Joe chuckled and then continued. “We killed each other.”

“Many times”, Nicky smiled softly at him while Noor nipped at him softly.

When Joe and Nicky were close Beren and Noor preferred to change places. Many had mistaken the golden eagle to be Joe’s and the peregrine falcon to be Nicky’s. But they didn’t know how well the golden eagle reflected Nicky’s soul. Great and grand. When he stared into Beren’s eyes he could see the kindness in them and feel Nicky close to him.

So when it took a little longer than usual for Nicky to heal the shot wound in his head it felt like someone tore a heavy piece of his heart out of his chest with talons. Like Beren was leaving with Nicky. The dust was gone. Beren was gone. Nicky was ...

“No, no, no”, Noor murmured next to him.

A sudden panting intake of breath and gold dust suddenly appeared in a poof. Beren squawked affronted as she collapsed on the floor.

Joe sighed in deep relief and clasped Nicky’s hand in his.

“Nicky, Nicky”, Noor jumped closer anxiously and put her beak against Nicky’s cheek before she stilled in relief. “Don’t do that again.”

“Sorry Noor”, Nicky murmured.

“What about me?” Beren puffed affronted.

“Yes you too”, Joe laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun facts:  
> Berenice means "bringing victory", while Nicolò means "victory of the people". 
> 
> Noor means "light" and is also in tradition one of the 99 names of Allah, so it's a religious name - like Yusuf's name. 
> 
> \---
> 
> I wanted to work in the scene from the van but the story took control from my hands and I wanted to focus on the daemons more than the humans. 
> 
> So this is it!  
> I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
